Lima - last day

The last day! I signed up for a food and bike tour. This is the same tour company that I signed up with two days ago for a tour of the city center. This time we're going south of Lima, to a suburb called Barranco.

One of the same guides took us to a seaport, in the district of Chorillos, where freshly caught seafood is sold. The view was amazing and all the seafood could not look any fresher. The guide picked up some fish and took me to a nearby "mom & pop" seafood shop.

There, the fish was made into fresh cebiche!! Again, because the fish is so fresh, it didn't need much time to marinate. It came out within 10 minutes. It was as good as the one I made at the cooking class yesterday. The guide told me that locals eat cebiche between breakfast and lunch as a snack because many local restaurants don't have refrigerators, so they have to finish serving by early afternoon. Of course, big restaurants with good refrigeration can keep the seafood fresh and serve it at dinner.

The next stop was the oldest bar in Barranco, called Juanito Bar. Yes, it's a bar and we were supposed to have alcoholic drinks there, but not today.... Tomorrow is the presidential election day in Peru and any alcohol consumption the day before the election is prohibited.. But the causa trio below was excellent. These causa isn't the typical layered shape; instead, different toppings are served on top of balls of causa potato. This one had scallop, octopus and tuna (left to right). Still the best one is octopus. It was well seasoned and tender!

For dinner, I did some research because this is going to be the last meal in Peru. I found this restaurant, Panchita Sazon Criolla. It seems this is Gaston's restaurant. Some guidebooks and online comments mention Gaston's name but not the restaurant's website. So, I'm not totally sure... Gaston is probably the most famous chef in Peru and his restaurant, Astrid & Gaston, is ranked No. 14 of the world's 50 best restaurant in 2015. I had tried to book his restaurant in Cuzco, called Chicha, but couldn't make the reservation.

This restaurant specializes in grilled and stewed dishes. The first dish is anticucho. Compared to the anticucho I had the other day, this is definitely more sophisticated. The beef heart was cooked medium rare and the corn accompaniment was separated from the cob and lightly sauteed. The seasoning was as good as the other anticucho.

This is a pork stew, called adobo. Adobo can be totally different things depending on the culture. In the Philippines, adobo is normally a chicken stew involving vinegar. In Mexico, it refers to a chili-based pasty sauce. In Peru, adobo is stewed pork, which originated from the Arequipa region. I don't think that traditionally this is such a big chunk of pork but this restaurant offered a very generous portion, in a very complex flavored sauce. So yummy!

I don't know if this is a traditional or a fusion dish but it's so good! Stewed beef tongue that melts in your mouth. The sauce tasted a bit like Beef Bourguignon. I was expecting the puree underneath to be grits (corn), but it was a very creamy mashed potato.

In this trip, I would say the two most noteworthy dishes/foods were cebiche and fruits. I've had quite a few cebiche. But nothing can beat cebiche made with fish that was caught in the same day!! When marinated the minimal amount of time with fresh lime juice and fresh chilis, it cannot be any fresher. Also, the amazing fruits. My most favorite is granadilla, which is one of the sweeter passion fruits. It has a floral aroma that reminds me of some Pinot Noirs. It resembles lychee in flavor, which is also my favorite. In fact, the very last food I had in Peru was granadilla at the airport. I bought some at the supermarket and took it to the airport. I was enjoying it until I was ready to board the plane.

Another amazing trip!

Lima - 3rd day

My day starts with a market tour. This is a part of the cooking class I signed up for. I already see quite a few fruits from the other tours, but I still find interesting veggies/fruits that I haven't seen before.

This is a small seedless avocado. It still needs to be peeled like a regular avocado.

I've heard of camu camu but I had never seen one until now. Camu camu is cultivated in the Amazon region and is known for its amazing amount of vitamin c.

The other day, I talked to a guide about Sriracha and he didn't know about it. However, I found it here at the market. I think Sriracha will be the universal hot sauce soon....

This is aji amarillo. Literally yellow chili. This is nothing new to me because most popular salsa in Peru is made with aji amarillo. But I didn't know aji "Yellow" is actually aji "Orange."

This is totally brand new to me. It looks like some sort of beans pod but this is in fact a fruit. The name is pacay. It's amazing that Peru can still introduce me to something I've never seen....


Once I finished the market tour, I was transferred to the cooking school and we had a fruit tasting session. Peru has this many fruits to offer!

After the fruit tasting, the first dish we worked on is causa. Causa is a layered mashed potato dish with different ingredients between the layers. I had found that almost all the cooking classes offer causa, yet I'd hardly seen this at the Peruvian restaurants in the US. After taking the class, I found out why. The basic recipe is quite simple but the problem is obtaining the right potato. The particular potato I used to make this causa is yellow, less moist and glutenous. I don't think I can find the same potato in the US. The instructor chef said I can compensate by using dried mashed potato powder. Even if that's a last resort, I'm going to mix different potatoes to get the right texture in order to avoid using potato powder....

Fillings and toppings can be anything, and the choices and combinations are infinite. I'd like to nail the basic potato recipe and create my own version of causa! The photo below is the causa with chicken salad and avocado.

[Added in Jun 2020 - Causa cooking video with mg own personal twists]

This is definitely the highlight of the cooking class. It's a basic cebiche. By the way, cebiche can be spelled either cebiche or ceviche. I've made cebiche myselft but the class teaches me a couple of twists that I didn't know. One is fish stock and the other is evaporated milk. Diluting the marinade with fish stock and adding more flavor completely makes sense. Just lime juice by itself could be too edgy but adding fish stock will make it more rounded while providing additional umami from the stock. However, the addition of evaporated milk was a total surprise. I knew the liquid for the cebiche is called leche de tigre (tiger's milk) but I didn't expect actual dairy milk. I don't know if this is an original idea of the instructor or whether it's traditional. But it did make it tasty! Also, another surprise was the marinating time. I thought that fish needs to be marinated 30-60 minutes to be cured and absorb the flavors. However, it doesn't have to be marinated for long if the fish is fresh. In fact, the marinating time was barely 10 min. It was just superb!

The entree was lomo saltado. I've tried a few different versions of lomo saltado since I came to Peru. Since everything I tasted was different, I really don't know what lomo saltado is supposed to taste like. One ingredient I didn't expect in this recipe was red wine - I feel like it wasn't seasoned well. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best lomo saltado I've ever had.

The dessert is picarones, deep fried donuts with dark syrup. I had this yesterday at the street food tasting in the city center. We made it from scratch with sweet potato folded yeast dough. The ring shape is made with one hand. And every single student in the class tried it. That was very tough. Nonetheless, it was tasty.

The two dishes I learned about the most from the class are absolutely causa and cebiche. I have to try them as soon as I get home!



Because of the cooking, class, I wasn't that hungry for dinner. So, I decided to go to a seafood restaurant, called Pescados Capitales, to have a few appetizers. Since the first tiradito I had when I arrived in Lima wasn't what I was expecting, I wanted to check out another tiradito. When the server brought this tiradito, I was a bit disappointed. It totally looks like the fish is covered with thousand island dressing. It didn't look good at all. However, the creamy sauce was made with cashew nuts and the yellow sauce on top was aji amarillo salsa. It was freaking good!! I thought it'd look better if the cashew sauce was between the plate and fish and the aji amarillo sauce was on top of the fish. Anyway, it tasted so good! I'm glad that my initial thoughts were wrong.

This dish was also amazing. Grilled octopus on top of causa base (seasoned mashed potato). Topped with arugula-like greens tossed with vinaigrette. The balance was perfect. I don't know how they seasoned the octopus but it was unbelievably well flavored!

I didn't want to order any dessert because I wanted to check out an ice cream shop after dinner. But when I saw cherimoya mousse on the menu, I had to try it.... Also, based on the previous amazing dish, I couldn't resist. They didn't disappoint me at all. It was very "cherimoya." Cherimoya is naturally rich and creamy. I don't know how much additional cream is added, but it was so good!

I had to have lucuma ice cream before I left Peru. I found a shop called "Amorelado" near the hotel. Ripe lucuma taste like baked sweet potato. This ice cream tasted like 70% lucuma. It was great!! I'm glad I pushed myself to go for ice cream.

Tomorrow is the last day in Peru. Another food tasting tour and nice dinner to follow!

Lima - 2nd day

Today's schedule is exploring the city center of Lima on my own first, then joining a food and walking tour in the same area. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Gastronomic Museum. According to the guide book, it's a pretty small museum but the admission fee is only US$1.00. So, why not? It shows regional dishes using photos. Probably because my expectations were lowered, I kind of enjoyed visiting the museum.

The organized tour is conducted by Food Walking Tour Peru. They have different programs but I chose "Lima's Downtown Street Food." I was told by the tour company that I should be hungry so I had a very light lunch. The tour takes us to various food stands in the Lima city center. I didn't know exactly how many stops and how many dishes we were going to have. Let's see.

The first dish was the soup called Caldo de Mote. It's only US$1.00. It's a soup with corn and beef organ meats. It's probably cooked for a long time with the bones, based on the creamy color.Very comforting and tasty. The stand had optional toppings, such as cilantro, lime and salsa. I love spicy food and have tried many hot sauces/salsas. But I found Peru's salsa is quite hot!

Then, we move onto the fruit stand. The picture below is dragon fruits, which looks quite different from what I can find in California. Normally dragon fruits have super bright pink skin. Peruvian dragon fruit has the same flavor and texture. But this is sweeter. Dragon fruits are originally from Peru and transplanted in southeast Asia.

The next fruit is Cherimoya. I've seen and tried cherimoya at a Mexican market in California. But they are not as nearly sweet as this one. Also, the flavor is a lot more intense. Cherimoya is considered as one of the most expensive fruits in Peru.

The next savory dish is stuffed and deep fried potatoes topped with lightly pickled onion. The stuffing is chicken and some veggies. And the whole potato is fried in oil so that the inside is moist and the outside crisp. This stand also had a red salsa and that was very spicy. This dish was very good but a bit too salty. I started to realize the foods in Lima in general are saltier than those in Cuzco or Puno.

This is fish escabeche from the same stand. The fish was deep fried and cooked with tomato-based sauce. This dish was even saltier than the potato I had previously. Many foods from food stands tend to be salty for safety in many countries. But I thought this was very salty.....

After something salty, it's time for something sweet. The dish is called picarones, which are ring-shaped fried donuts. The donuts are coated with black molasses-like syrup. The Peruvians call it "honey" (miel) but this is a syrup. The dough was made with pumpkin and some spices.

The next dish is a very unique dish in many ways. In Peru, Chinese restaurants are called Chifa. The dish below is kam lu wantan. On the bed of fried wonton skin, stir fried mixed protein and vegetables, such chicken, duck, pork, beef, shrimp, squid, pineapple, snowpea, red bell pepper, etc. are placed in a mound. The sauce looks like sweet & sour. But this is just sweet.... Unlike the other foods I tasted, it's not salty at all. Just sweet.... I don't know whether the color comes from ketchup or some sort of red coloring. But there are no flavors. Just sweet.... Each country has their own version of Chinese food, normally sweeter than the original version. The guide said the sauce includes tamarind, but it's not really tangy. I tasted just sweetness.

Then, we walk around the market. Since I arrived in Lima, I found olives as a garnish on many dishes. I didn't associate olives with Peruvian cuisine. Not only are olives popular, but they're also grown in Peru. It seems Peru can grow anything..

This drink is called chicha morada. It's made by boiling purple corn, pineapple skin, spices (cinnamon & clove), and sugar. This is a very popular drink in Peru.

Then, I found this in McDonald's. It's a Chicha Morada Sundae!

The tour was ended with Peru's national cocktail, the pisco sour. The guide took us to the Gran Hotel Bolivar in the city center. I tasted the pisco and it wasn't too sour nor too sweet. Very good balance. I had a small portion of the basic pisco sour but I would have loved to try other variations.

They were right, I was really full. I think they could have introduced us to more dishes but they stopped because I said I was really stuffed. I'm planning to take another tour in another region of the Lima two days later again. I can't wait!!

Puno to Lima

I was picked up at 4:00 am in order to avoid the protesters' road blockage. As we left the quiet city center, I started to see some rocks on the street. Initially, I thought the rocks came from the nearby cliff but soon I realized these obstructions were created by the protesters because it got worse and worse as we progressed. I saw a very big (the size of small refrigerator) rock that I don't know how the protesters could have moved. The driver was driving in a zig zag to manner to avoid these rocks, although the smaller rocks made the ride very bumpy. At one point, a bunch of guys were blocking the street completely with huge concrete column and started to throw stones towards us as warning, a couple of which hit the underside of the car. The driver was trying to persuade them by explaining that he was just taking tourists to the airport but they didn't listen. So, the driver took a detour, which was unpaved. I saw more rocks on the road to the airport, which is about 30 miles away, including one large and unexpected pile that the driver ran over and we thought for sure would cause some damage to the transmission (but fortunately it didn't).

We somehow arrived at the airport thanks to the driver. That was the scariest drive in my life... Inside the super cold airport, I saw a few other people who left the hotel very early like me. Also, I saw other travelers arriving in the next hour. But around 6:00 am, the flow stopped. I guess all the possible streets were blocked by the protesters by then, so that the travelers who didn't leave early enough couldn't get to the airport.

A good thing (for me) was that since so many seats were empty because of the many travelers who couldn't make it to the airport, I could get on the earlier 9:45 am flight (my original flight was 1:43 pm). I arrived at Lima around 11:00 am - early enough that I can have a lunch here. After checking in at the hotel, I headed to the local cevicheria, called Costazul Seafood.

It seems the restaurant is listed on every single guidebook because the inside wall was filled with the messages from all the visitors in different languages. Like other Peruvian restaurants, the service was slow. I believe they make all the ceviche when they receive the order.

The cold platter below consists from 4 dishes. Marinated octopus, marinated mixed seafood (such as shrimp, squid and crab), ceviche and tiradito. The first two seemed pre-prepared. The octopus was a bit too salty and the mixed seafood was a bit too bland. However, the ceviche was excellent. I'm sure that was freshly prepared and had a good balance of salt and acid, as well as a good level of spice. Not too cured but not also not too raw. The tiradito was as fresh but it was different from what I was expecting. Tiradito is a Japanese version of ceviche and it's a hybrid of sashimi and cheviche. What I was expecting is thinly sliced raw fish (like sashimi) with various salsa on top. But their tiradito looks almost identical to ceviche. Obviously it''s less cured than ceviche so that the fish was simply tossed in the sauce. Maybe that makes this tiradito. I thought the fish was cut too big and the sauce wasn't strong enough to season the big chunks of fish. Nonetheless, very fresh fish.

Tonight's dinner was something special. I booked the restaurant way before I left for the trip. The restaurant is Maido, a well known Nikkei Peruvian restaurant. Nikkei means Japanese oriented and the chef is a part Japanese. The restaurant was chosen as one of the 50 world's best restaurants. Peru has 3 restaurants in the list but I wanted to go to Maido because I was interested in upscale Nikkei Peruvian foods.


The dinner is 15 course meal along with a drinks pairing. Unfortunately, the service wasn't up to the level of Michelin starred restaurants. However, the foods were very good. Here are some of the unique dishes / my favorites.

River snails with dale dale foam - the size of this snail is about that of a golf ball. Because the flesh is braised for long enough, there is no funky smell.

Paiche sandwich - Paiche is a fresh water fish from Amazon. It's prepared well so that there's no muddiness. Good balance of sweetness and acidity.

Seafood sushi (squid and scallop with chia) - The sauces on top were very good. I'm not sure if the chia did anything to the sushi, though.

Amazonic cebiche - cebiche with a fish from Amazon along with julienned peach palm. Peach palm is like bamboo shoot, somehow.

Sweetbreads sushi (one on the left) - This is the best dish of the meal! I'm not usually crazy about sweetbreads because of the texture. But this sweetbread was perfectly seared and seasoned! It totally worked as the sushi topping.  

Miso glazed Black cod - I do make something like this a lot. But it was very good balance between sweetness and saltiness.

Wagyu short rib, egg yolk, wrapped fried rice - the beef was cooked for 50 hours. Fried rice is inside the wrap but I'm not sure what the wrap is made with. It tasted like rice or tapioca flour. The dish was eaten after mixing all the components. Very yummy!



It seemed like no one in Lima knew about the protest in Puno. I know Puno is not a big city in Peru. After I got back to the hotel, I turned on the TV to see if the news is talking about the protest in Puno. Nothing.... I wonder if the current president even knows about the protest. Their current president didn't keep the his promises, so the residents in Puno have every right to be angry about this issue. But whatever they are doing is not reaching the president, I guess. I feel sorry for them.....